Man confesses to killing girlfriend's husband with an ax: 'I didn't plan on hurting him'

LANSING —  A Lansing man admitted in court to killing his girlfriend's husband with an ax. 

Jacob Ficher testified he'd only intended to scare Ammar Al-Yasari, because Al-Yasari had physically, emotionally and sexually abused his wife, who Ficher was having an affair with. 

"I thought killing him would be too good for him," Ficher said. 

Ficher was the defense's first and only witness in his own murder trial, which had been going on for more than two weeks. Fisher and his girlfriend, Bdour Al-Yasari, are charged with murder and conspiracy to commit murder in connection with 35-year-old Al-Yasari's death. 

Ficher testified that he hid in the Al-Yasari's Holt home on the night of Feb. 4, waiting for Ammar to return. His intent was just to scare Ammar, to threaten and intimidate him with the ax, he said. 

"A discussion wasn’t going to push him away from the actions and the things he was doing," Ficher said. "He needed to be scared, and he needed to be really scared."

But when Ammar came toward him, Ficher hit Ammar with both his fists and the ax, he testified. Ficher pushed him, and when Ammar approached him again, Ficher hit harder, he said.

"I didn't plan on hurting him, but I just...," Ficher said, trailing off. "All I could hear was my heartbeat, and I just kept swinging."

In all, he struck Ammar 24 times on the head, face and neck with the ax. Seventeen of the strikes would have been “catastrophic” and "fatal almost immediately," Ingham County Medical Examiner Patrick Hansma said in an earlier hearing. 

"Your intent was not just to kill him, your intent was to brutalize him," Assistant Prosecuting Attorney Bill Crino said during cross examination. 

"False," Ficher said. 

Ficher and Bdour had been in a relationship since August 2018, with a brief break-up in late fall when Ficher discovered Bdour had a husband and two children. 

They had plans for Bdour to file for divorce, then to take the kids to the West Coast, where Bdour would feel safe, Ficher testified. 

The divorce never happened, and Bdour continued to hide Ficher from her family. Prosecutors say the pair conspired to kill Ammar so they could be together. 

Crino repeatedly asked Ficher if he hated Ammar. He asked if Ficher saw Ammar as a roadblock in his path to a relationship with the woman he loved. 

Ficher denied it each time. 

"He wasn't an impediment, he was a rapist and abuser," Ficher said.

He saw scars and injuries on Bdour's body, he said, and she told him Ammar abused her physically, emotionally and sexually. 

"I made it very clear that I hated his actions," said Ficher, who was an infantryman in the U.S. Army. "Soldiers don't fight because they hate what's in front of them, but because they love what's behind them." 

Ficher said he alerted Bdour that he had killed her husband over the social media application, Snapchat, and warned her not to bring her two children inside with her. 

He said she had nothing to do with Ammar's death. 

Ficher's attorney, Stephen Cornish, and Crino will present closing statements Tuesday morning, after which the jury will begin deliberations. 

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Contact reporter Kara Berg at 517-377-1113 or kberg@lsj.com. Follow her on Twitter @karaberg95.